European historians use a comparative notion of “balance of probabilities” when claiming knowledge transmission from Europe (Greece) to #India, but insist on the absolute notion of “beyond all reasonable doubt” for reverse transmission from India into #Europe. #decolonisation

They use this double standard to sustain a Eurocentric history writing against their dialogical competitors, even in situations where application of this principle would make a stronger case for East-to-West transmission.

This strategy has been used to perpetuate the racist notion that all knowledge flowed from ancient Europe.

For example, Neugebauer in 1962 used “priority, accessible communication routes and methodological similarities” to prove his belief that the astronomy contained

in the Indian Siddhantas had Greek origins, with Zero direct documentary evidence.

Similarly, Van der Waerden (1976) combined this approach with his much-criticized “hypothesis of common origin,” to claim that Bhaskara II’s work on 'Diophantine equations' originate from

an 'unknown' Greek manuscript that was available to Bhaskara and his students.

Later in 1983, he used the same approach to claim that Aryabhata’s trigonometry was borrowed from the Greeks
on the basis of a 12th CE Arabic version of Ptolemy’s astronomical text called Almagest.